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Hearing on Dorothy Day shelter dispute postponed

By Zach Murdock| on
July 11, 2018

The front of Dorothy Day Hospitality House, on Spring Street in Danbury, Conn, on Friday, May 29, 2015. Neighbors raised serious concerns about the facility during a community meeting on Thursday night.

The front of Dorothy Day Hospitality House, on Spring Street in Danbury, Conn, on Friday, May 29, 2015. Neighbors raised serious concerns about the facility during a community meeting on Thursday night.

The front of Dorothy Day Hospitality House, on Spring Street in Danbury, Conn, on Friday, May 29, 2015. Neighbors raised serious concerns about the facility during a community meeting on Thursday night.

The front of Dorothy Day Hospitality House, on Spring Street in Danbury, Conn, on Friday, May 29, 2015. Neighbors raised serious concerns about the facility during a community meeting on Thursday night.

But city staff and board members are still waiting on several documents related to the variances that the board discussed at its meeting last month, such as a more formal parking plan, so they opted to push back the public hearing until Aug. 9, Planning Director Sharon Calitro said.

Officials had expected neighbors, opponents and supporters of the shelter to fill council chambers for the meeting at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, as they have for previous hearings.

Dorothy Day and its attorney, Neil Marcus, appealed that decision and the two sides have been locked in litigation before a Hartford judge ever since.

Marcus was in court all day Wednesday and could not be reached for comment on the outstanding documents being prepared for city staff.

The variances are the first step in a lengthy bureaucratic process to try to settle the dispute.

If approved, the variances would allow Dorothy Day to apply for a special exception for its operations with the city’s Planning Commission, likely setting off more heated public comments from defenders and opponents of the shelter.